Present-day concepts for industrial automation are based on the idea of decentralized controlling. The control tasks to be carried out are divided up among the control nodes of the decentralized control system in a geographically and functionally optimal manner. Thereby, the control nodes communicate with each other and with the superordinate system via local networks. By means of the decentralized control, the time and effort involved in the communication process may be reduced as the individual control nodes autonomously take over control tasks relating to their respective areas and only have to communicate with the further control nodes and/or with the superordinate system for coordination purposes.
In this context, the decentralized control is based on the idea of subdividing automation tasks among individual functional and logically complete modules which may then be arranged in close proximity to the process, thus reducing the wiring and installation involved. By subdividing into modules, complexity may be reduced in order to enable a simpler functionality.
Open systems are a further trend in automation technology which enable the user to combine automation components from various manufacturers. This allows for the utilization of the best technical solution to individual partial tasks by the user and for choosing the most inexpensive manufacturer. An essential demand to automation components in open systems is connectability, i.e. the individual automation components must in principle be able to exchange data. Open systems further require their automation components to be interoperable, i.e. the individual automation components must comprise defined profiles in order to guarantee that said components cooperate when the automation task is carried out. Finally, open systems require the interchangeability of automation components from various manufacturers, i.e. the devices of the manufacturers have to provide the same functional scope.
In spite of the increasing use of decentralized open control systems and the cost advantages resulting therefrom, a return of investment problem still exists in industrial automation, particularly due to increasingly shortened product cycles. Although new products are already developed in a way to allow for their simple automated production, the automation systems for manufacturing the products are usually specifically designed for the product to be manufactured and thus, adapting them to product and process changes is only possible by means of a high amount of time and effort.